NorthStar News

A year ago, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s projections for 2017 were that soybeans, a worldwide favourite crop, would experience increases across the Canadian Prairies with a continued movement westward. So, how did they do?

Data, collected and published by Stats Canada on December 6, 2017, shows that indeed seeded acres of soybeans have increased by 67.5 percent over 2016 values across the prairie provinces with 3,140,000 seeded acres in 2017. Another incredible increase in acres for this oilseed crop.

In the spring of 2017, Stats Canada projected 2,200,000 seeded acres of soybeans in Manitoba, an increase over 2016’s 1,635,000 seeded acres. But in reality, Manitoba growers seeded 2,290,000 acres of soybeans in 2017, an increase of 40.1 percent. According to the Manitoba Agriculture Final Crop Report, October 16, lower yields were reported for soybeans due to the dry conditions that persisted throughout most of the province during pod filling. This is reflected in the average yield for 2017, as yield was down 12.6 percent from 41.3 to 36.1 bushels/acre.

The Stats Canada projection for Saskatchewan was a hefty increase of three times the 2016 seeded acres to 730,000 seeded acres in 2017. Seeded acres of soybeans for 2017 were recorded up 254.2 percent at 850,000 over 2016’s 240,000 seeded acres. Average yield in Saskatchewan was 20.8 bushels/acre, a decrease from the 32.3 bushels/acre growers reaped in 2016. According to the Saskatchewan Crop Report for October 17, yields in most southern and central areas of the province were significantly impacted by the extended period of hot and dry conditions through the summer.

At this time, there is no reported soybean data from Alberta, maybe this year?

There have been a few predictions that soybeans will overtake wheat acres in Manitoba. They didn’t quite do it in 2017, with 2,290,000 acres of soybeans and 2,765,000 acres of wheat (all wheat), but they are certainly gaining ground!